June 2014

Focus on Wildlife

Take pictures, but please don't touch.

Brooke Lewis

Congratulations to the winners of the 2014 Focus on Wildlife photo contest benefitting Dane County Humane Society's Four Lakes Wildlife Center.

Four Lakes Wildlife Center (FLWC), the wild side of Dane County Humane Society, has experienced unprecedented growth. While we are grateful to be part of a community that is looking out for wildlife welfare, due to space and resource limitations, we are unable to accommodate the increasing number of animals coming in for rehabilitation.

Far too often, well-meaning individuals bring in healthy baby animals that simply do not need our help and we need to keep healthy babies with their families so that we are able to keep space open for animals that truly need assistance. Please call before removing an animal from its home. We can help assess the situation to decide if intervening is in the best interest of the animal.

Facts about baby wildlife:

It's a myth that human scent on a wild baby animal will make their parents abandon them.

Young birds normally spend up to a week on the ground before learning to fly. The parents will still feed and protect the baby while it is on the ground.

Baby birds and squirrels that fall out of the nest are not necessarily orphaned. If they are uninjured, they should be reunited with their parent.

It is normal for nocturnal animals such as raccoons or opossum to be seen during the day when they have young. They need to spend extra time foraging for food when supporting babies.

If you have an animal that has made a nest in your attic or crawl space, there are humane ways to encourage it to take its babies and relocate them. Live trapping and relocating mothers creates many orphans.

How do you know when an animal needs help?

It's bleeding or obviously injured. Don't assume that a fledgling bird has an injured wing because it cannot fly. A bird with an injured wing will often hold the injured wing differently than the uninjured one.

It's heavily parasitized. Mother animals tend to keep their babies free of parasites so animals that have a large number of fleas or ticks or are swarming with flies, have fly eggs (look like tiny grains of rice) or maggots on their fur or feathers should be brought in.